Tag: Japan

Singapore – GetIT, the B2B marketing consulting and solutions firm dedicated to brands in technology, IT, and telecom industries, has opened its office in Tokyo, strengthening its name in the international arena and expanding its already flourishing presence in the Japanese market. 

Group CEO & Director Anol Bhattacharya shared that Japan has always been a key market, where for over 20 years, technology industry leaders and telcos hailing from the country have been part of the many clients it served.

“Our experience with delivering solutions for our clients in Japan led to us acquiring local clients in the Japanese market. Growing our presence in Japan was a natural progression for us as we see a growing demand for Asia-Pacific marketers to venture into Japan and vice versa,” said Bhattacharya. 

With the new office, it will be bolstering its go-to-market solutions of content marketing, demand generation, lead nurturing, and account-based marketing to technology and telecom businesses in Japan.

Leading the charge in Tokyo is Kennosuke Saito as country manager. Saito is an industry veteran having been the country manager at Wunderman International and AdPeople Japan building a new marketing service agency business model focusing on digital and data solutions. Saito brings extensive marketing and sales experience. He had also been part of top global ad agencies such as Grey, Leo Burnett, Ogilvy & Mather, Wunderman, and MediaCom managing both B2C and B2B clients.

“I am very excited about GetIT’s Japan office, being a proud member of this growing professional organization. With the B2B marketing expertise and experiences GetIT has built in APAC, I am confident that we can expand our services to Japanese clients and help you develop effective and efficient marketing activities outside of Japan for further business growth. We are thrilled to be your best partner for your APAC marketing,” commented Saito.

GetIT is headquartered in Singapore. The firm commenced operations in Bangalore, India in 2015, and expanded its operations to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2019. 

Tokyo, Japan – Advertising network Grey Group in Tokyo, Japan has announced the promotion of Masanori Tagaya, former executive creative director, to now assume the role of chief creative officer.

Tagaya first joined Grey Japan in 2002 as a TVC producer and copywriter and rose through the ranks to be named creative director in 2012 and executive creative director in 2019. He worked on multiple brand campaigns for P&G, Febreze, and Pantene, as well as Lenor, and Pringles, among others. 

Commenting on his promotion, Tagaya said that he finds it to be an extraordinary opportunity to dive in, creating work that represents different styles, and enjoying the ride along with the team,

“Consumer insights have changed. Our work styles have changed. We have arrived at an age where companies and brands must be meaningful in the market and be meaningful in society,” said Tagaya.

Meanwhile, Yukiko Ochiai, the CEO and president of Grey Tokyo, shared that Tagaya has proven himself to be an excellent creative leader who delivers creatively celebrated work that helps the clients’ business grow. 

“Our world has changed, and with that, our consumers’ habits have changed. I am confident Masa will accelerate Grey Tokyo’s ability to develop ground-breaking work that is truly ‘famously effective’ in our new world, which will continue to drive growth for our clients,” said Ochiai.

In March this year, Grey Group in China has also announced the appointment of Sharlene Wu as the new CEO, with the aim to build better connections with Chinese Grey clients. Wu was tasked to drive the agency’s overall strategic vision and growth plan.

Tokyo, Japan – Integral Ad Science (IAS), the global digital ad verification company, pushes for the awareness of ad verification by using everyone’s favorite medium – Manga comics. 

IAS launched its first Manga info book titled ‘Understanding Ad Verification with Manga!’ in an aim to raise awareness and deepen understanding of ad verification specifically for Japanese marketers, by introducing the basic concepts and approaches of ad verification.

With an even stronger digital activity today, the presence of fraudulent ads is fast becoming a pressing issue, and proper ad verification is looked to as one of the best possible solutions to combat this. Ad verification is a process that enables advertisers to verify if ads are placed in the right context, such as being situated on the right websites and therefore, displayed among the right audiences.

Digital ad verification is the company’s prime solution. The specially crafted manga series by IAS is an easy-to-understand overview of the basic concepts of ad verification, solutions, and use cases, seeking to support those in the field of digital advertising, as well as those at companies and agencies who are working to optimize and improve the health of their advertising.

It centers around the main character, Rinosuke Adobe, a young digital advertising manager at a fictional automobile manufacturer, and his team member, Tsugumi Suehiro, and their journey in solving problems such as brand risk and ad fraud by using ad verification.

“Although awareness of ad verification as a solution to media quality issues such as brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability in the digital advertising ecosystem is growing in the Japanese market, efforts to understand and implement the solution are still in their early stage,” said IAS.

Takeshi Yamaguchi, IAS Japan’s sales director, said, “Japanese digital ad budgets continued to grow even throughout the challenges of H2 2020, while ad fraud rates have also increased. IAS created this manga comic book to help creatively communicate the importance of ad verification and present the verification solutions in an easy-to-understand format for our partners.”

The new manga booklet is available for free download on the IAS website.

Japan has been bolstering its efforts on creating a safe environment for ad publication. The country has launched the Japan Institute for Certification of Digital Advertising Quality (JICDAQ), a third-party organization that provides third-party certification of the quality of digital advertising. Aside from this, a report by the Cabinet Office’s Digital Market Competition Council has also been released that outlines issues and recommendations for ensuring the fairness of transactions and improving transparency for the sound development of digital advertising.

Tokyo, Japan – Head & Shoulders, the anti-dandruff shampoo brand of Procter & Gamble, has released a new animated campaign for its Japanese market, narrating a tale of espionage of dandruff prevention.

Entitled ‘The Chase’, the campaign follows Ando the spy as he is being chased by Detective Takashi and his henchmen across the world. Despite hiding at every corner in the world, Ando is somehow tracked down by Detective Takashi due to the ‘trail of dandruff’ he left behind. But after using H&S scalp product, Ando manages to escape the henchman-now without a trace.

The campaign centers around the message of ‘Don’t let dandruff get in the way’ as Procter and Gamble aims to promote a new line of Head & Shoulders products in the Japanese market. The campaign also aimed at portraying the issue of dandruff among Japanese men in an anime-inspired context, as Japanese men rarely speak about dandruff-related issues.

“The campaign not only marks the launch of our new line of anti-dandruff products in Japan, but is also the start of an exciting new journey where we want to help men break free from the stigma that surrounds dandruff, providing a solution both to a haircare issue and an everyday life barrier,” said Kylene Campos, vice president for Japan and Korea for hair care at P&G.

The campaign was done in collaboration with creative agency Forsman & Bodenfors Singapore. The collective has also worked with Psyop/Blacklist – renowned for managing the best animators in the world – and high-profile animation company Wizz’s director duo CRCR to bring the vision of Ando and this adventure to life. 

“Animation is a category convention breaking approach, aimed to stand out from traditional product-focused shampoo commercials. The 2.5D animation style was chosen to convey the desired mix between the realism of the characters and settings and the liberties animation allows for which heightens both the action and humor of the film,” Forsman & Bodenfors stated in a press statement.

According to Shum Qihao, creative at Forsman & Bodenfors Singapore, knowing that talking about dandruff among men in Japan is met with a taboo factor, they aimed to create the campaign to uplift a humorous element to it, as well with a theme of action-packed sequences.

“We conceived Ando to prove the point that getting rid of dandruff is easier than most people think, and created a relatable yet aspirational character for audiences to showcase that. Every scene is crafted to dramatize the annoying consequences of having dandruff and how Ando finally finds the perfect solution to break free from it,” Qihao stated.

Meanwhile, Julia Blomquist, planner at Forsman & Bodenfors Singapore commented, “Greasiness and dandruff are associated with the feeling of shame and perception of being unhygienic, meaning few men discuss the issue or its possible solutions with others, and they are held back in daily life because of it. With this campaign, we tackle the issue by addressing it head on with humor, showing we understand the audience in a way that breaks the category convention.”

The original campaign, initially launched last 8 April, will be also available as two shorter spots catered for TV and social media campaigns, which will be accompanied by key visuals and GIFs for social media and digital display.

In addition, fans can follow the adventure on Twitter using the “#フケから救出大作戦” (#OperationRescueFromDandruff) hashtag. Adding to that, Ando will be taking over H&S Japan’s Twitter account where he will provide advice for men suffering from dandruff. There will also be a question box available for those who wish to ask questions anonymously.

Tokyo, Japan – Experience management (XM) platform Qualtrics has renewed its current partnership with IBM Japan in order to aid organizations in the customer experience (CX) through Qualtrics Experience Management Platform.

IBM joined the Qualtrics Partner Network (QPN) in November 2019 and established a dedicated Qualtrics team to support XM implementations. In February 2020, all members of the dedicated team were certified as Qualtrics consultants. 

The team has delivered professional implementation of Qualtrics EmployeeXM to organizations in Japan, including winning orders for large-scale employee experience projects and receiving the highest satisfaction score in IBM Japan after implementation.

Through the renewed partnership, IBM Japan becomes the reseller and implementation partner for Qualtrics in Japan. As Japan’s first-ever certified Qualtrics reseller, IBM Japan will provide one-stop support to customers implementing the XM solutions from Qualtrics to help them accelerate and expand the value of their investment.

According to Satoru Kumashiro, managing director of Qualtrics Japan, their appointment as an official reseller of Qualtrics in Japan is “a testament to the proven abilities of Qualtrics, which is already being successfully used by leading Japanese companies.”

“In a world where businesses succeed or fail based on the experiences they provide, Qualtrics is proven to help businesses across the globe design and continually improve the experiences delivered to customers and employees. As we continue to rapidly scale our operations in Japan, Qualtrics’ strategic partnership with IBM ensures businesses across the country can benefit today from the industry leading Experience Management Platform,” Kumashiro stated.

In addition to acquiring the Qualtrics reseller certification, IBM Japan will focus on achieving the partnership goals of continuous expansion of the XM market in Japan and expanded support for XM solutions to Japanese customers.

Tokyo, Japan – Global advertising agency R/GA in Tokyo has appointed Kei Shimada, former associate partner and founding member and leader of the Digital Makers Lab at IBM Tokyo, to be its new managing director, effective this month. The appointment aims to expand R/GA’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Shimada will now be responsible for leading the Tokyo office to drive innovation, human-centric work for the company’s local and international clients. He will be tapping into the agency’s deep creativity, tech, and design experience expertise, and will work closely with other regional leads in support of helping clients create a more human future. 

Prior to his new role, Shimada has had a long-standing career of helping companies around the globe. He specializes in redefining existing product and service strategies, and enhancing existing revenue streams, or creating new ones from the ground up. At Digital Makers Lab, IBM Japan’s business-to-business (B2B) workshop, Shimada led the digital transformation of clients and spearheaded the creation of world-first, region-first, and industry-first focused solutions, and business models.

Furthermore, Shimada has worked as the global director of innovation and business development at Dentsu, where he focused on the build-out of dentsu Aegis’, now called as denstu international’s, group wide innovation initiative that created new solutions around wearables, neural technology, locational big data, and crisis management infrastructures. He has also fulfilled the role of chief lab officer of dXLab, dentsu media’s innovation lab spanning eight countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Commenting on his appointment, Shimada said that he is excited to be given the opportunity to join R/GA and lead the Tokyo office. He believes that having such an eclectic mix of people working together serving local and global clients is something very unique in Japan, and one gives them a strong competitive advantage.

“I’m looking forward to further shaping and growing the Tokyo office as we deliver transformative solutions for clients that play at the intersection of bold ambition, creativity, and human truths,” commented Shimada.

Meanwhile, Tuomas Peltoniemi, the EVP and managing director of R/GA APAC, shared, “It’s exciting to have a respected, inventive, and influential leader like Kei onboard. With an ambition to leverage new technologies to help clients create new solutions for a more human future, coupled with an incredible track record of commercial and creative success, there’s no one else better to be at the helm of R/GA Tokyo.”

Shimada’s appointment completes the newly-formed Tokyo leadership team that is poised to work with Japanese and global brands, enabling growth both locally and internationally.

Japan – TotallyAwesome, the largest kids-safe digital advertising and content platform in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, has announced that it will be expanding its market presence in Japan to further reach the hard-to-get audiences.

Following this endeavor, the business has also hired Mikio Kudo, former country president of toy brand Mattel, to be its new country manager in Japan. He will be supported by new senior appointments at TotallyAwesome in the coming months.

Kudo brings with him 20 years of experience in marketing and media. He has previously worked as the executive director for commercial broadcasting company Turner Japan KK and media sales manager for financial software giant Bloomberg LP. Kudo specializes in managing licensing deals, original content sales, and advertising sales.

Commenting on Kudo’s appointment, Will Anstee, the CEO of TotallyAwesome, said that this is a huge strategic win for TotallyAwesome as Kudo is a rare talent who understands both the client and publisher sides in a complex market like Japan, enabling the business to execute superior engagement strategies for our clients’ competitive edge. 

“I couldn’t be more excited and optimistic for the future of the business, but more importantly, our continued ambition to make the internet safe and compliant for brands and Japanese youth online,” added Anstee.

The digital platform is an advanced forum for kids, teens, co-viewing families, and brands to safely interact across thousands of apps, games, and websites, enabling a youth-safe ecosystem across APAC. In Japan, TotallyAwesome has an audience of 17 million internet users aged six to 18 years old, as well as two million families that view the internet as a family unit.

Japan – Global apparel retailer UNIQLO has appointed Doraemon, the famous fictional character in the Japanese manga and anime series of the same name, as its global sustainability ambassador.

The ambassadorship will see the blue Japanese manga and anime character turned into a green model, to be called ‘Doraemon Sustainability Mode’, with the UNIQLO logo also rendered in green. The green color signifies the many ways in which the apparel retailer company materializes its sustainability message, “Changing our future through the power of clothing.”

The Doraemon character will be responsible for presenting the brand’s sustainability initiatives in fun and easily understandable ways. The company said that in turning Doraemon and the UNIQLO logo to green, it aims to emphasize the company’s determination to strengthen its sustainability efforts. ‘Doraemon Sustainability Mode’ will be featured in UNIQLO stores around the world, the brand websites, and other channels.

Doraemon will join Japanese actress Haruka Ayase, the sustainability activities lifewear special ambassador of UNIQLO, and other global brand ambassadors, which are Swiss professional tennis player Roger Federer, Japanese professional tennis player Kei Nishikori, and Japanese competitive snowboarder Ayumu Hirano, as well as British professional wheelchair tennis player Gordon Reid, and American actor Adam Scott, among others.

Doraemon and Ayase are slated to participate in the UNIQLO school outreach program for elementary, junior high, and high school students in Japan, while the other global brand ambassadors will also contribute to these endeavors through sports and by wearing everyday apparel incorporating environmentally friendly materials.

The company also shared what the new fictional ambassador would have commented: “Hi, everyone! I’m Doraemon and now I am Green! I’ll do my best as UNIQLO Global Sustainability Ambassador to help create a much brighter future! I want to work with you all, so we can make people everywhere more interested in the future of our world!”

Koji Yanai, the group senior executive officer of FastRetailing, shared that they are delighted to partner with Doraemon, saying that over the past two decades, UNIQLO has undertaken numerous sustainability initiatives through business to contribute to a better, more sustainable world. 

“We believe that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social transformations, and evolving consumer attitudes make it more important than ever to collaborate with customers and other stakeholders in driving positive social change,” added Yanai.

Singapore – Technology company AnyMind Group has announced that it will be forming a strategic partnership with Japan-based multi-channel network (MCN) UUUM with an objective of rebuilding the creator and influencer industry in Japan through mutual utilization of the resources from UUUM and AnyMind Group’s technology and data for influencer marketing and direct-to-consumer (D2C) offerings.

As an initial part of the partnership, both parties are looking at creating the largest influencer network in Japan for marketers, with a launch date set for the second quarter of this year. This network will enable marketers and agencies in Japan to tap on the largest-combined pool of content creators available, combining UUUM’s creators, expertise, and reach with AnyMind Group’s proprietary software, along with creators from AnyMind Group-owned GROVE.

In addition, UUUM will look to launch influencer D2C brands by tapping on AnyMind Group’s tools including AnyFactory (for cloud manufacturing) and AnyShop (for e-commerce), with further details to be announced later this year. 

For Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder of AnyMind Group, their partnership with UUUM is all about “creating the infrastructure for next-generation businesses in Japan.”

“AnyMind Group has been creating intrinsic value for individuals and businesses across 13 markets around the world, with a focus on developing and providing technology and data-driven platforms, along with supporting businesses in the D2C domain. [This] will become a core foundation for rebuilding the creator and influencer industry in Japan and the world. We will continue to create synergies with UUUM and provide even more value for influencers and brands,” Sogo stated.

Meanwhile, Kazuki Kamada, CEO of UUUM said, “We are convinced that this partnership will enable us to realize a completely new influencer marketing across industries and to propose an evolved marketing plan by promoting data utilization. Together with AnyMind Group, we will open up a creator-influencer-driven future.”

Singapore – KINOKUNIYA, a pioneer of the ‘self-service supermarket’ in Japan, has recently announced that it will be opening two pop-up stores in Singapore, one in local restaurant JAPAN RAIL CAFE and one in Japanese department store, Isetan Scotts.

The chain said it is looking for fresh ways to connect to customers, and that with restrictions to international travel still in place, it has decided to bring some of the country’s most popular food items to Singaporeans through its first-ever pop-up series. 

KINOKUNIYA
KINOKUNIYA’s flagship store in Aoyama, Tokyo

For a limited period, the pop-up stores will offer an exclusive range of Japanese products, such as Strawberry Butter, a spread made with Japanese strawberries and butter; Premium Truffle Soy sauce, which is a blend of white olive oil, french black truffles, and Japanese soy sauce; and Drinking Yuzu Vinegar, which is a health boost made with yuzu juice and natural spring water.

The supermarket brand’s original KINOKUNIYA eco-bags are also available in the pop-up stores. A special promo has also been thrown in, where customers who spend above $20 on products, or order the ‘KINOKUNIYA Vinegar Drink’ at JAPAN RAIL CAFE will be given a special edition mini cooler bag.

The pop-up store will be open at JAPAN RAIL CAFE from February 27, 2021 to March 18, 2021, while the store at Isetan Scotts will open on March 5, 2021 until March 18, 2021.